1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic bagging apparatus for automatically bagging a predetermined amount of articles such as ice cubes.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,651, a conventional bagging apparatus of this kind comprises a bag storage mechanism disposed between an ice making machine and an ice storage bin to store a number of stacked bags, a bag feeding mechanism arranged to feed a foremost bag of the stacked bags from the bag storage mechanism to a predetermined position, a bag support mechanism arranged to support the foremost bag fed by the feeding mechanism for deploying an upper opening of the bag, a storage tank arranged below the ice making machine to store ice cubes supplied from the ice making machine, an ice delivery mechanism arranged to successively deliver ice cubes from the storage tank into the supported bag, a weighing mechanism arranged below the support mechanism to weigh an amount of ice cubes supplied into the supported bag, a sealing mechanism for sealing the upper opening of the bag, and an electric control apparatus for controlling each operation of the foregoing mechanisms. The electric control apparatus is designed to repeatedly operate the bag feeding mechanism, the ice delivery mechanism and the sealing mechanism in sequence for successively bagging a predetermined amount of ice cubes and accumulating the bagged ice cubes in the ice storage bin.
In the conventional bagging apparatus, the electric control apparatus will continue to conduct the sequence operation of the foregoing mechanisms even if the bag feeding mechanism failed to feed the foremost bag to the predetermined position. As a result, the ice cubes will wastefully drop from the ice delivery mechanism without being bagged.